You would have thought that an anorak like me would not even think twice about using Windows Live Writer to blog with... but I did not. I have a few blogs inside Microsoft (for those Microserfs out there, have a look on my SharePoint MySite) and I've been using Word to blog. Yes, Word 2007 can do it too, and so can OneNote via Word, and I just assumed it would be better than anything we offer for free.

But Neville convinced me that I might be missing a trick if I don't use our own product for blog posting. Windows Live Writer is really good. It know how to post to several different engines, and adjust it's capability accordingly. One thing that Word definitely could not do as seamlessly as Writer, is storing old posts and allowing me to edit old posts. Fantastic! And adding pictures & videos and more are just as simple.

Really - if you are not yet using a tool to blog, go check it out. If you are using a tool that is not serving you well, it's worth your time too.

And the good news is - Neville - if you go to Windows Live Writer via the link above, we *won't* assume you've opted in for all the other bits too - we'll just give you Windows Live Writer unless you opt in for the other bits :)

Thanks for the tip to check out our own software!

I've been brewing on the topic of privacy. I recall in my days as consultant on our Commerce Server product (even when it was just Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition - now showing my age and technical background), we were contemplating the implications of personalisation, and how it might play out to the extreme when everybody knows everything about me.

There was the optimistic side in me that used to say: "Perhaps it would be good if systems and companies really knew me. Perhaps they'd stop sending me email I'm not interested in - spam - and start really handing me valuable information that will lead me to make smart business and buying decisions." A win-win. But at this lunch, Neville used a brilliant example that explains why this thinking is flawed: Advertisers are not trying to help you, they try to change your behaviour to benefit them.

Let's say you are going through a tough time in your relationship with your wife, and your email provider mine your emails and knows this about you, only to target you with display adverts offering you cheap sex. Although this might be an effective advert and good targeting from an advertiser's position, it is clearly not constructive to your life.

Back to the point: I think it is imperative that we al least enter into this brave new world of social networks with deliberate consent, rather than blissful ignorance. See Robin's blog for some more real life examples of this.

One of the replies to Robin's posting, was from Colin McKay, director of communications at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Canada. He also posted a video that he made to demonstrate this point very eloquently. Thanks for sharing Colin!

I'm proud of what we're doing to help simplify privacy statements so that it's easier for people to know what they sign up for, and I know as marketer in Microsoft - internally we take privacy extremely serious. And, we're also doing a lot to help educate people about how to be safe online.

But I'm very interested in what you think we could be doing more or differently. How can we make the world a better place to live?

I received my new Lenovo X61T tablet PC on Monday, and I'd like to share with you my first impressions.

I was hoping to buy (with work money - thanks Bill!) the ultimate power machine in a small and lightweight portable package, looking very sexy, with all the features I wanted yet within the budget available. Needless to say, I had to lower my expectations... something had to give.

And I then opted for our corporate standard (one of a few) Lenovo X61T. I have seen better looking machines, but this is not bad. I've certainly seen heavier and less well-built machines! This one is sturdy - as in carbon fibre, not iron.

And I'm impressed with the variety of drivers available for both x86 and x64, and I had little problems getting it going. The screen (I have the higher-res non-touch screen) is good - I'm currently out doors in the cold England with a weak sun, and I can see the screen well. Battery life seems pretty good, especially with the extended battery, and the keyboard is just right. I've never been a trackpoint fan - I prefer the touch pad of previous Toshiba, but I'll make do. The Inking on this machine is gorgeous - it reminded me of an earlier research project at Microsoft to find the ideal friction point between a lovely pen and paper - and this screen gives me that same paper feeling when inking. And the anti-reflection coating on the screen does it's job - but it gets dirty very quickly.

I've also got a lot of RAM in it - and therefore not all of it is available to access... I might try x64 later to see if I can see any difference.

It's great to now have a DVD drive again. I've been without a DVD or CD drive for the last 4 years on other tablets (this one has a docking station with it in), and it suddenly mean that I can now again at least consider things that only appear on CD :)

Like with any new machine, I'm still searching for keys on the keyboard, still constantly finding applications or settings that I want to re-apply/install, but all in all - I can recommend it.

Alfred

I've received a Zune as a gift a few months ago, and it worked brilliantly as an PM 3 player, but that was about it - especially since there are not thousands of friends around me with Zunes to share music with. I nearly sold it, but then stopped short because of the fantastic musical quality that I got with it. It was heads and shoulders above my otherwise trusted and great Creative Zen. I really like the sound quality of the Zune.

Then Microsoft came around and provided a *free* firmware upgrade to everyone who bought a Zune in the past. http://www.zune.net

What a bonus! Other than increasing the size (which we have not yet figured out how to do with a mere firmware update - doh!), it feels like a new Zune to me!

1. I love the new UI. The Zune has always been friendly and fresh - not your typical Windows (or Linux) UI, it was much more interesting - comparable in experience but uniquely different to Apple.
2. The wi-fi capability which in the past could only share music files with other Zunes, can now suddenly sync over wifi too - and the set-up was really a pleasant experience. My next thought was that this is useful, yet I won't need to sync in any case, as I don't buy new music that frequently, and all 314 albums on my Media Center is already on the Zune. But then I discovered the really long overdue podcatching capability!
3. Podcast catcher: The Zune application on the PC has been much improved, and does not look like a cheap skinning of Windows Media Player any more. It now more look like a complement to the Zune, rather than an old-hat PC app. And it offers a "marketplace" similar to that of iTunes, including a marketplace for free content including PodCasts. And it works very intuitively, complete with cleaning algorithm to remove old podcasts.

The only catch is that this is still designed and tuned for a US-only market. And intentionally. We chose to first focus on providing an excellent experience in one country, rather than have a world-wide offering that is not yet world-class. (However, if you want to get this working for testing purposes, then you might get away with creating a Windows Live ID with country = US, and then creating a Zune account with that Live ID with a machine locale set to US and browser locale = US. Once you created the account, you can switch all back to UK, and it still seems to work, at least for podcasts.)

May the Zune be with you!

Coming to a Zune near you, very Zune.

GeZuneZeit!